The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-01-28

her in panic. Was she already deadi |
No, it was only a faint The faint |
passed off and the servants were gath /
cred round her where she lay in the /
cool air On the terrace. Her eyes
sought her husband face, and the only /
words she spoke were. Il am to dieI' /
NOW, to dead certainty-and a very
dead certainty indeed-Bertha would
die if she sank as she was sinking dur
ing the month or two that followed the
falling of the great picture. All the
neighborhood had the tale; the ''Goiden
Dragon" had sent it round-the bride
at the castle was wasting away and
dying. The doctors found no disease,
but she was fading as a flower fades
whose life is done.
The Schwartzberg case began to fill
the papers of Geneva. Two brothers
had quarreled long ago, and the young
er of the two had incurred his fathers
anger and gone away an exile from his
home and country. He ran through
his portion in p wild life, and never
Catne back like the prodigal. But his
son came back, as a stranger and a
! peasant, to live gloomy and discon-
tented under the shadow of the castle
where his father had lived as a boy.
| His fathers brother was there grown
old now, and Tho heir was the grand
| son-a boy with an elder sister just in
| the flower of girlhOOd. The young
heir had been killed by fall on the
rocks. The old Baron had died and
man with no name but Schmidt was in
| the place of the BarOns of Schwartz
berg. The great case dragged on as
a nine-days' wonder. There were two
wills; one produced from the safe of an
old notary of Schwartzberg, it was
| written after the boys untimely death
and gave the property to the next heir
of the Schwartzberg barOns, the male
| descendant of the absent brother; the
other will was written on the night of
the Baron's death. 1t was disputed be-
cause it had been drawn up when the
| testator was weak in mind, on the brink
| of death, and it had been done at the
| instigatiOn of Schmidt himself. Well,
all the village had been amazed to dis
cover who Fritz Hartmann was; there
was no doubt how the case would go.
but the poor lady-it is sad for
her." said one of the oilers outside the
| inn.
''She is dying, anyhow, so it does not
matter" answered another. 1T does
not make any difference to the dead
whether they owned Il castle or a
| hOvel."
But Is she dyings" with a shudder.
"Yes,' in whisper; 1.-The portrait
fell-it was the omen. She sickened at
once. 1t will be Il great funeral. My
| Lord will 90 back to his law books; his
time at the castle was a short life and
merry one"
But Ludwig Schmidt sped home from
Geneva to his young wife. Victory!
the decision is for u.s.;
She raised herself from her couch to
| lean the fair head against his shoulder.
al am glad to think You viii be here
you will not be poor-when 1 am
gone
''But you are not dying, darling-Or
if You We're dying, it was OF fear, and
you shall fear no more
"Do not blame mel can't help
being afraid, Bertha : weak voice said.
IL have heard of the Schwartzberg
omen all my life. -"
Poor child! You have heard too
much"
And oh. Ludwig she went on, al
am almost afraid to tell you-the night
/ you went away the stone eagle over
the gate fell down; and the night was
so still there was not leaf stirring"
| Now, the fall of the eagle over the
/ gate was a new form Of the omen, and
/ it set Ludwig thinking for dear life
| yes, for a dearer life than his own.
| That very night again the eagle fell.
! For the second time it was put up and
mortared and cemented into its place.
Bertha is sheerly dying of superstition
dying of an old woman's tale,
thought Ludwig, eXasperated; land
yet can not explain this evil thing
away. If the poor child dies it viii
not have been foretold. it will have
been caused by the fall of that picture
in the tapestried room and this eagle
over the gate"
The so-called Fritz Hartmann was
leaving the village; he was taking
Martha and their child across the ocean
to make an emigrant's home in the far
West. He had refused goodly sum
of money from the castle. He would
have all or none. He was to 90 to-
morrow, but it was a tomorrow that
| never came.
"The eagle is down again" whis-
pered the kelner to his master, land
the ivy is all broken and torn from the
wall and there is a man lying dead
Ludwig hurried across the courtyard,
and found Hartmann dead on his face,
with an ivy tangle beside him and the
broken eagle.
Only then the kelner remem-
bered that each time the omen had
come it had shown itself after the visit
of Hartmann with his carving. As for
the fall of the aRtlers and the acct
dental death of the boy-that no doubt
suggested to Hartmann an easy method
of clearing the old Baron out of the
way; for certainly when the mirror fell
and the portrait Hartmann, the carver,
had found an opportunity to help the
nails out of the wall and leave them
loose. If the young bride had died of
superstition and fear there would have
been no heir but the man who had
tried by legal means and lost his
chance The lady of the castle
bloomed in health; she cOmfOrted the
peasant widow. and sent little Gret-
chen n marriage portion in time to
come. But the evil omen of the
Schwartzberg never happened again;
and the folks of the Golden Dragon"
refused the explanation, as credulOus
folks always do.